Means for mounting buttons and similar articles



MEANS FO R MOUNTING BUTTONS AND SIMILAR ARTICLES Filed Aug. 24, 1942 BY z j, ATTORNEY a INVENTOR.

Patented May 30, 1944 MEANS FOR MOUNTING BUTTONS AND SHVHLAR ARTICLES Samuel Eppy, Jamaica, N. Y.

Application August 24, 1942, Serial No. 456,102

3 Claims.

This invention relates to a method and means of mounting buttons and other articles of a similar nature, embodying a body portion and a shank or inner axial protuberance for attaching the button to a suitable support, on cards or other devices'for display purposes and distribution in their marketing.

While my invention has a wide range of applicability in the preparation of numerous items of merchandise for marketing which are customarily mounted on cards or the like, for the purposes of this disclosure I have elected to present my invention more or less specifically, as it may be practiced in attaching buttons of those types generally employed for utilitarian and decorative purposes in the manufacture of garments, to cards, by utilizing the shanks thereof, by means of which they may be stitched to the garments, in fastening them to cards, either singly or in groups. However, this is merely illustrative and is not to be construed, in any sense, as a limitation of the scope of utility of my invention, the term button, as herein used, being generic to all items or articles of corresponding physical characteristics which may be afiixed to cards or correspondingsupporting surfaces in accordance with my invention. 1

As is well known, buttons of the shank type have heretofore been attached to cards by superimposing them upon the card with their shank portions projecting through complemental apertures in the cards, the buttons being secured against displacement by a loop of wire run through the shanks on the underside of the card,

or other means in engagement with the shank and undersurface of the card. In other instances, the buttons have been mounted on the face of the card, with the shanks bearing there-.

on and secured thereto by a looped stitch passing through the card and the superimposed shank. Both of these methods and others employed in the art involve a multiplicity of operations, including hand adjustments of the buttons or securing means, or both, which add materially to the cost of marketing the buttons. Further, in many cases, through operational defects or from other causes, the buttons are insecurely fastened to the cards and become loose in handling, resulting in a serious economic loss, especially where one or more buttons of a specific and diflicult to replace design may be separated from a group on a display card.

Therefore, the primary object of this invention is to provide a simple and eflicient method of rapidly fastening buttons to supporting cards and the like, in a manner to insure against separation of the buttons from the card, except. when such separation is intentionally effected.

A further important object of my invention is 5 to provide means for carrying my method intopractice, involving the fastening of the button to the card by the formation of a wire staple, entered through the card and passing through the shank of a button superimposed upon the card to be clinched to positively connect the button to the card for relative limited movement.

Another object of my invention is to facilitate the practicing of my method by the provision of a specially formed card to which the buttons may be expeditiously afilxed in one position, for subsequent displacement relative to the face of the card to assume the conventional position thereon; that is, with the body portion generally parallel to the card, the button being shiftable on the card with its shank in connected en gagement therewith.

Other objects and advantages flowing from the practicing of my invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

In the accompanying drawing, I have illustrated a preferred form of card, together with a modification thereof, which may be most satis- Figure 1 is a view in perspective'of a card,

perforated to outline a plurality of slots of a specific outline, which are formed by displacing, the portions within the slots outwardly of the body of the card in a hinge movement. Figure 2 is a perspective view of the card shown in Figure 1 with a series of buttons disposed thereon, certain of the buttons being entered in slots of the card in the position which they assume for connection thereto, the remaining buttons being shown in the positions to which they are shifted for display purposes.

Figure 3 is a sectional elevation on the line 3-3 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a sectional elevation on the line 4-4 of Figure 2.

Figure 5 is a. view in perspective of a modified form of slotted card.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, in which like characters of reference are employed to designate similar parts in the several views,

and more particularly to the type of card shown in Figures 1 to 4, inclusive, it will be observed that the body of the card I 0, which may be of cardboard, metal or other suitable material, is ruptured or cut to define sections which, for present purposes, will be termed tongues, as indicated at II, that are hinged to the body of the card between the lines of cleavage, these lines defining a tongue having inclined end portions 12 and a free leading edge composed of straight sections I3 on either side of the triangular indentation l4, it being obvious that if the tongue is displaced from position in registration with the body of the card, on the hinge line I5 the resulting slot lob will be of a complemental out line including a shank seat Illa defined by the separation of the tongue along the lines [4, the slot corresponding generally to the profile of the head of a button to be entered therein as and for the purposes hereinafter explained.

In'themodified form of card shown in Figure 5, theslots 16 take a form which may be'utilized in mounting buttons of standard shapes, the slots being punched in the card, or formed by rupturing the card and displacing the resulting tongues within the slot areas, in the manner pointed out, in the description of the card of Figure 1, or otherwise. Obviously, slots of other configurations may be provided in the cards, in thearrangements shown, or other preferred relation.

To mount the buttons on the card H3 in the manner and for thepurpose hereinbefore described, the tongues H are depressed and the heads-of the buttons 30 are entered in the resulting slot lllb so as to dispose the shanks 3| in longitudinal engagement with the shank seats Hla'and-the face-of the card, the contour of the slots, which substantially corresponds to the profile-of the'button heads, as aforesaid, supporting the heads at'their periphery and cooperating with the face of the card to'hold theb-uttons in theaforementioned position. Each of the buttons is; in this manner, suitably supported for swivelly fastening the shank thereof to the card as by means of the wire staple 28 passing through the eye of 'the shank and the body of the card, as shown in Figure 3, the staple being formed bymeans of any suitable wirestitching or stapling mechanism. Upon completion of the staplingoperation, each button can be shifted from its position in the slot i in a swivelling movement about the staple 28, to dispose the head thereof to its ultimate position parallel to the face of the card, the tongue ll being concurrentlypressed back to approximately its" original position beneath the overlying head of'the' button in the same hand operation by which the shifting of the button is effected, as illustrated in Figure 4. The inherent resiliency of the card material will be sufficient, in many instances, to cause the tongue to follow the button movement from the slot to an approximate slot-closing position.

I claim:

1. A button card assembly comprising, in combination, a shanked button, a card ruptured along associated lines defining a tongue partially separable from the body of the card to provide a slot having a contour circumscribable to the cross section of the head of the button substantially on a plane passing through the axis of the shank, to cooperate with the face of the card to hold the button entered in the slot in a position'in which the button shank is in longitudinal engagement with said face of the card, and means for swivelly connecting said shank to the card, for the optional displacement of the button head from said slot to a position in parallel spaced relation to the'face of'the card.

2. A button card assembly comprising, in combination, a shanked button, a card ruptured along associated lines defining a tongue partially separable from the. body of the card in a hinge movement of the tongue to'provide a slot having a contour substantially" corresponding to the profile of the head of the button, to support the periphery of thehead' of the button entered in said slot and cooperate: with the face of the card to hold the button in a=position in which the shank thereof is in longitudinal engagement With said face, and means for swivelly connecting said shank to the-card, for the optional displacement of the button head from said slot to an ultimate position in parallel spaced relation to the face of the card, the inherent resiliency of the card material causing the tongue to react to the displacement of the button head from the slot to assume substantially its initial position relative to the card surface.

3. A button card assembly comprising, in combination, a plurality of shanked buttons, a card ruptured along associated lines defining a plurality of tongues partially separable from the body of the card to provide slots having a contour substantially corresponding to the profile of the head of the buttons, to support the periphery of said heads entered in the slots and cooperate with the face of the card to hold'the buttons in a position wherein thebutton shanks are in longitudinal engagement with said face for mechanical connection thereto, and means passing through the shanks forswivelly connecting said shanks to the card for the optional displacement of the button heads from the slots to a position in parallel spaced relation to the face of the card.

SAMUEL EPPY. 

